4-alkyl-2, 6 bis(2-hydroxy-5-alkyl-benzyl) phenols as polypropylene stabilizers



United States 3,ll76,733 4=ALKYL-Z,6 MHZ-HYDllflxY-fifirlillllbhllNZYli) PHENOLS AS POLYPRGPYLENE SEABELHZERS Marvin P. Weaver, Princeton, N.J., assignor to Union Carbide Corporation, a corporation oi New lorir No Drawing. Filed Feb. 12, 1959, Ser. No. 792,695 9 Claims. (Ci. lath-4535} commercial applications. In general, temperatures of the order of 170 C. to 180 C. are employed for fluxing polypropylene and temperatures of the order of 220 C. to 250 C. for extruding polypropylene.

Attempts have been made to overcome this deficiency in polypropylene by adding thereto stabilizers which were known to improve the thermal stability of polyethylene. These attempts have proved unsuccessful, however. lt has been relegated, therefore, to a secondary role while polyethylene occupies a position of preeminence in the plastics art.

The requirements of a polypropylene stabilizer differ so greatly from those of a polyethylene stabilizer that even the most eiiective polyethylene stabilizers were of no value for polypropylene. For example, an unsubstituted bisphenol or 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-cresol, which are widely used as stabilizers for polyethylene,

do not stabilize polypropylene and, in fact, aggravate its thermal instability, almost doubling the amount of molecular degradation sufiered during roll-milling.

Examples of other stabilizers which are effective for ineffective for polypropylene are as 2,2-thio bis(4-rnethyl-6-tertpolyethylene and thiobisphenols, such .butyl-phenol) and 4,4-thio bis(6-tert-butyl-m-cresol). it

is evident, therefore, that. the efficacy of a stabilizer for polypropylene cannot be predicted from its efficacy for polyethylene and that attempts to employ the known polyethylene stabilizers in polypropylene have generally re sulted in failure. Hence, it has been necessary to discover new stabilizers for polypropylene.

There is a great need in the plastics art for a polypropylene composition that is stabilized against thermal degradation. It is the primary object of the present invention to provide such a composition. It is another object of the present invention to provide a polypropylene composition having improved resistance to oxidation so that it can be processed on conventional equipment and become commercially useful.

It is another object of the present invention to provide compounds that will stabilize polypropylene compositions against thermal degradation.

These and other objects are accomplished according to the present invention, in which a. stabilized polypropylene composition has present therein a stabilizing amount of a compound having the formula on on on @omom-@ l n n n atone Q F Bfiliijihh Fatented Feb. 5, 19%.?

wherein R is a lower alkyl group which may be primary, secondary Or tertiary, and may be the same or dilterent. By lower alltyl group is meant an alltyl radical having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms.

Examples of specific polyphenols within the scope of the above formula and useful in the practice of the invention are the following:

4-rnethyl-2,6-bis (Z-hydroxy-S-methyl-benzyl) phenol 4-tertiarybutyl-2,6-bis (Z-hydroxy-S-tertiarybutylbenzyl) phenol 4-tertiaryamyl-2,6-bis 2-hydroxy-5tertiaryarnylb enzyl) phenol 4-rnethyl-2,6-bis (2 hydroxy-S-tertiarybutyl-benzyl) phenol 4-tertiarybutyl-2,6-bis (Z-hydroxy-S -methyl-benzyl) phenol 4-methyl-2-(2-hydrox -S-ethyl-benzyl)-6(2-hydrox -5- tertiarybutyl-b enzyl) phenol v 4-tertiaryarnyl-2- Z-hydrox -5-methyl-benzyl) -6- (2- hydroxy-S -tertiarybutyl-benzy1) phenol.

The above compounds and other compounds having the formula given above may be prepared by a process similar or identical to that described below for the preparation of 4-tertiaryamyl-2,6bis(2-hydroxy-S-tertiaryamylbenzyl) phenol.

Particularly preferred compounds are 4-tertiaryarnyl- 2,6-bis(2-hydroxy-5-tertiaryamyl benzyl)phenol and 4- methyl-2,6-bis (Z-hydroxy-S -methyl-benzyl) phenol.

The propylene polymers which are effectively stabilized in accordance with the present invention are those which are normally solid at room temperature and may be produced according to any of the several methods known in the art. Exemplary of such processes are those described in Australian patent application No. 6365/ 55 to Phillips Petroleum Company, United States Patent No. 2,692,259 to Edwin F. Peters, and United States Patent No. 2,791,576 to Edmund Field.

The appropriate concentration of stabilizer in the composition depends on, among other things, the particular stabilizer and polypropylene resin involved; the severity of the thermal conditions to which the composition is to be subjected during compounding, forming and use; the nature and amount or other modifiers included in the composition, etc. in general, concentrations as low as 0.005% or 0.01% by weight of stabilizer based on the weight of polypropylene eilect significant stabilization, and concentrations exceeding about 2% by weight do not add any beneficial advantages. in general, a concentration of about 0.05% by weight of stabilizer based on the weight of polypropylene is preferred.

Incorporation of the stabilizing material in the polymerit: propylene is accomplis red by conventional methods using such apparatus as a roll mill, Banbury mixer, or the like. Advantagcously the polypropylene is mechanically Worked at a temperature only just sufficiently high, i.e., about 170 to 180 C, to attain a fluxed material of formable consistency before the stabilizer is added. This procedure permits a minimum of processing to obtain an intimate mixture of the composition constituents.

It is understood that "arious other additives which do not impair the stabilizing action of the stabilizers of this invention may be incorporated into the composition in the conventional manner. Such additives include colorants, light stabilizers, tillers, pigments, processing aids, slip agents, lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, and the like.

Polypropylene compositions containing the stabilizers or the present invention resist oxidation by an oxygen atmosphere at C. for a period approximately ten times as long as does the unmodified polypropylene. They can also Withstand the mechanical and thermal abuse inflicted by 45 minutes of roll-milling at C. with virtually no molecular degradation.

A series of tests were conducted to illustrate the improved resistance to oxidation of polypropylene compositions containing the stabilizers of the present invention over unmodified polypropylene and polypropylene con taining two well known stabilizers for polyethylene. The results of these tests are shown in Table I. The tests were conducted as follows:

Polypropylene (melt index 0.70, density 0.90 g./cc., ash content 0.06%, dielectric constant 2.27) was fluxed and sheeted on a two-roll mill at 170 C. Then, 0.05% by weight of the modifier was added to the sheet, on the mill, and thoroughly mixed therewith by successively removing the sheet from the rolls and end-passing it through the mill nip four times.

A representative sample of the roll sheet was removed and the melt index of the composition was carefully measured. The remainder of the material was left on the mill and milling was continued at 170 C. After minutes, a sample was withdrawn for use in the oxygen bomb test. The remainder was milled an additional 35 minutes, then removed and its melt index measured. The increase in melt index effected by this 45 minute milling treatment appears in Table I.

The induction period was determined in the following manner. A mixture consisting of 0.2 g. of the composition which had been milled 10 minutes at 170 C. and 2.0 g. CaO was charged to a Norma-Hoffman bomb (similar to that described in ASTM D-942-50 for determining stability of lubricating greases) equipped with an automatic pressure recorder and maintained at 140 C. under oxygen (at an initial pressure of psi.) for 24 hours. The time vs. oxygen pressure curve was then examined and the induction period, i.e., the time at which oxygen pressure began to drop, was determined.

(l) The unmodified polypropylene (A) starts to react rapidly with oxygen at 140 C. after only 1.75 hours; and its melt index is severely increased, i.e., a great deal of molecular degradation takes place, when it is roll-milled at 170 C.;

(2) The stabilizers of the present invention (D) and (E) effect about a nine fold increase in the induction period, i.e., the time during which there is little to no reaction between the polypropylene and oxygen, at 140 C.; and they enable the resin to sustain the thermal and mechanical abuse inflicted thereon by 45 minutes of rollmilling at 170 C. with virtually no molecular degradation;

(3) Other polyphenols, as exemplified by 4,4'-dihydroxydiphenylmethane (Example C), have no significant effect on the induction period and they almost double the magnitude of the melt index increase suffered during rollmilling; and

(4-) 2,G-ditertiarybutyl-p-cresol (Example B) a well known phenolic antioxidant widely used to stabilize polyethylene, reduces the induction period, i.e., hastens the oxidation of polypropylene and it, too, almost doubles the extent of the molecular degradation suffered during rollmilling.

The compound of Example D, 4-tert-amyl-2,6-bis-(2- hydroxy-S-tert-amy1-benzyl)phenol, does not appear to have been reported in the literature. It was prepared in the following manner:

123 g. (0.75 mol) of p-tert-amyl phenol were added to a solution consisting of 33.8 g. (0.85 mol) of NaOH and 325 m1. of water, and the mixture was heated until a homogeneous solution was obtained. After cooling the solution to room temperature, 189 g. (2.3 mols) of 37% aqueous formaldehyde were added thereto. The mixture was agitated for 24 hours at room temperature and then evaporated to dryness. The solid residue was washed with acetone. The sodium 2,6-dimethylol-4-tert-amylphenate so prepared had a neutralization equivalent of 245.8 (calc. 246.0). This sodium salt was dissolved in a minimum amount of water and then acidified with acetic acid. The reaction mixture was cooled to about 5 C. The crystalline precipitate which settled out (2,6-dimethylol-4 tert-amyl phenol) was filtered off and dried. It had a. melting point of 3436 C., and was obtained in 66.6% yield.

A mixture consisting of 1000 ml. of heptane, 51.7 g. (0.23 mol) of the above prepared 2,6-dimethylol-4-tertamyl phenyl, 378 g. (2.3 mols) of p-tert-amyl phenol and 5.9 ml. of concentrated hydrochloric acid was heated to and maintained at 60 C. for 22 hours with constant agitation and then cooled to about 0 C. The precipitate which settled out, largely unreacted p-tert-amyl phenol, was removed. The mother liquor was then cooled in a Dry Ice-acetone bath, and the solid product which precipitated out was collected, dried, weighed and analyzed. The 118.7 g. of material so prepared had a melting point of 182-4 C., a molecular Weight of 513, a carbon content of 81.38% and hydrogen content of 9.33%, and corresponded to a 45.2% yield of 4-tertiary-amyl-2,6-bis- (2-hydroxy 5 tertiaryamyl-benzyl)phcnol (calc.: mol. wt.: 517; C=8l.40%; H=9.32%).

What I claim is:

1. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as the sole stabilizer a stabilizing amount of a compound having the formula -CH2 -CHT- I I I wherein R is a lower alkyl group.

2. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as OH OH CH? OH wherein R is a lower alkyl group.

5. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as the sole stabilizer about 0.05% by weight based on the weight of polypropylene of a compound having the formula 0H 0132 on Garbo-CEO R R R wherein R is a lower alkyl group.

6. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present the sole stabilizer from about 0.01% to 2% by weight based on the weight of polypropylene of 4-tertiaryamyl- 2,6-bis (Z-hydroxy-S -tertiaryamyl-b enzyl) phenol.

7. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as the sole stabilizer about 0.05% by weight based on the weight of polypropylene of 4-tertiaryarnyl-2,6-bis(2-hydroxy-S-tertiaryamyl-benzyl)phenol.

8. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as the sole stabilizer from about 0.01% to 2% by weight based on the weight of polypropylene of 4-methyl-2,6-bis (2-hydroxy-5-methy1-benzyl)phenol.

9. A polypropylene composition stabilized toward oxidation and thermal degradation having present therein as the sole stabilizer about 0.05% by weight based on the weight of polypropylene of 4-methyl-2,6-bis(Z-hydroxy- 5-methyl-benzyl)phenol.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,499,366 De Groote et al Mar. 7, 1950 2,841,627 Beaver et al. July 1, 1958 2,834,768 Friedlander May 13, 1958 2,920,058 Brown et al. Jan. 15, 1960 2,940,949 Mullin June 14, 1960 2,968,641 Roberts et a1 Jan. 17, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 208,596 Australia Oct. 27, 1955 OTHER REFERENCES Megson: Phenolic Resin Chemistry, Academic Press therein as Inc., New York, 1958, pages 247, 250, 261-264. 

1. A POLYPROPYLENE COMPOSITION STABILIZED TOWARD OXIDATION AND THERMAL DEGRADATION HAVING PRESENT THEREIN AS THE SOLE STABILIZER A STABILIZING AMOUNT OF A COMPOUND HAVING THE FORMULA 